on the decimal system 102
House of Wisdom 72–3
Indian numerals 100
on zero 105–6
al-Kindi 72, 75–6, 128–37
cosmology 133
cryptography 133–4
Indian numerals 100, 133
mathematics 132–3
music theory 134
On First Philosophy 132, 135
persecution by Banū Mūsa brothers 135
philosophy 128–9, 131–3
kinesis 130
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 248
Kūfa 51, 53
latitude and longitude 88, 102
Lebombo bone 93
Leonardo of Pisa see Fibonacci, Leonardo
libraries 69–70
Córdoba 192, 194
see also House of Wisdom
Library of Alexandria 69, 77–8
Eratosthenes 85
Library of Nineveh 70
light, nature of 164
Macoraba 20
Maimonides, Moses 201
māl 119
al-Ma’mūn, Abū Ja’far Abdullah 4, 6–17
astronomical observatory 80, 81–4
conflict with al-Amīn 11–14
early life 6–7
Egyptology 90–91
Greek rationalism 15–17
House of Wisdom 68–78
interest in scholarship and science 16, 67–8, 78, 230
measurement of earth 86–9
Mu’tazilism 127
ruler of Khurasan 10–11
Sunnism and Shi’ism 14–15
vision of Aristotle 16, 37
al-Mansūr, Caliph 6
astrology 28, 40–41
building of Baghdad 27–32
translation movement 37, 39
al-Mansūr, Abū Amir (Almanzor), vizier of Andalusia 193–4
mapping 88–9
Marāgha observatory 215–16
Marāgha Revolution 215–16
Marāgha School 217–19
Marajil, mother of al-Ma’mūn 6
ma’rakat al-Khandaq 22
Marinus of Tyre 88
al-Marwarrūdhi, Khālid, astronomer 83–4, 86
al-Masjid al-Harām mosque 21
al-Mas’ūdi 13–14
on the pyramids 90
al-Ma’sūmi 174
mathematics
al-Bīrūni 181–2
Babylonian 95–6, 98–9
Chinese 97
Egyptian 98–9
Ibn al-Haytham 166
Indian 41, 45, 96, 99–100, 106, 133; The Book of Chapters on Hindu Arithmetic 107, 108
work of al-Khwārizmi 73, 77
Mecca 20–21, 254n2
conflict with Medina 22–3
direction of (qibla) 167, 182, 206
Mecca Protocol 10
medicine
Abbāsid Empire 139
Andalusia 197–8
Egypt 140
Greece 45, 46, 141–3
India 140–41
see also Ibn Sīna
Medina 20, 22
conflict with Mecca 22–3
Medinat al-Zahrā 192–3, 194
metaphysics 136
mihna 16, 127, 135
Mishnat ha Middot 117–18
Mongols
destruction of House of Wisdom 136, 233
invasion 213, 214, 232–3
monotheism 21, 131
moon illusion 161–2
Mu’awiya, Caliph of Syria 24
library 70
Muhammad ibn Mūsa 73–4
Muhammad, Prophet
death and succession 23
Qur’an 23
vision of angel Gabriel 20
Mumtahan observatory 82–4
al-Muqtadirī hospital 144–5
Mūsa ibn Maymun see Maimonides, Moses
Mūsa ibn Shākir 73
music theory, al-Kindi 134
al-Mu’tasim 10, 135
al-Mutawakkil 135
Mu’tazilism 13, 14–16, 76–7, 124–8, 131–2, 135
parallel with Humanism 231
muwaqqits 216–17
Nasr al-Dīn Qajar, Shah of Iran 50
Newton, Isaac
alchemy 54, 57
law of gravitation 65, 239, 240
optics 156
Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor 5
Nile dam project, al-Haytham 154, 155
Nilometer 82
Nineveh, library 70
number theory 215
numbers 93–109
Hindu-Arabic notation 99, 100–102, 109
irrational 97–8
place-value notation 99–100, 101
Roman numerals 100–101
optics 156–65
Organization of the Islamic Conference 243–4
Pahlavi, translation of scientific texts 39–41
papermaking 43–4
paradigm shifts 242
patronage
al-Ma’mūn 16, 67–8, 78, 230
Andalusia 191
religious 216–17
translation movement 36, 37–8, 46
Paul of Taranto 59
Pell equation 117
Persia, culture, and translation movement 39–42, 45–6
Peurbach, Georg 217
Philoponus, John 131, 132
Philosopher of the Arabs see al-Kindi
philosophy
al-Farābi 136–7
al-Kindi 128–9, 131–3
Andalusia 199–201
Aristotle 129–31, 132
Ibn Sīna 180–81
translation movement 44
physics, Ibn al-Haytham 153–6
pi, value of 97–8, 238
planets, motion 209–10, 211
retrograde 209
Plato 129–30
emission/intromission theory 160
spherical earth 84–5
polytheism 21
Prime Mover 131
printing
Europe 231, 234–5
Islamic aversion to 234
Pseudo-Geber 59, 60, 64
psychology, al-Rāzi 145
Ptolemy
Almagest 47, 48, 80, 81–2, 209–10; translation 45, 71, 202
‘Andalusian Revolt’ 198
astronomy 80–83, 167–8; correction 206–7, 216, 217, 267n3
criticism by Ibn al-Haytham 168, 211–12
geocentric model 57
Geographia 88
Handy Tables 83
Mathematical Treatise 81
optics 158, 159, 161–2, 163
planetary motion 210, 211
Pyramids of Giza, al-Ma’mūn 90–91
Pythagoras 95
Qābūs, Prince of Gorgan 175, 176
qasīda 19
Qasr al-Ja’fariyya 7–8
Bayt al-Hikma 71
Qasr al-Khuld 6, 32
Bayt al-Hikma 71
Qasr Bāb al-Thahab 30
Qatar, Education City 248
qibla 167, 182, 206
quadrants, mural 82, 83
Qur’an
Mu’tazilite interpretation 76–7, 125–6, 127
revelations of Muhammad 23
and science xxviii, 38, 184, 246
Quraysh tribe 20
persecution of Muhammad 21–2
Qusta ibn Luqqa 47
al-Rahawi, Ishāq bin Ali The Conduct of a Physician 145
al-Rashīd, Harūn
choice of heir 9–10
library 70–71
trade with Charlemagne 4–5
translation movement 44, 46
war with Byzantine Empire 5
al-Rashidūn 23
rationalism, Greek, in Baghdad 15–17
al-Rāzi, Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya 56, 64–5
blindness 143
Book of Secrets 65, 149
chemical classification 65, 143
Doubts about Galen 148
Kitab al
-Jāmi’ al-Kabīr 146
Kitab al-Judarī wal-Hasba 146
Liber continens 146–7
medicine 140, 143–51
philosophy and religion 149–50
Reconquista 195, 225
reflection 166
refraction 157–8, 162–5
Regiomontanus 217
relativity 219–20, 239
religion, and science xxvi–xxviii, 245–6
Renaissance, Europe 229–31
Rhazes see al-Rāzi, Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya
al-Ridha, Ali 14–15
Ripoll Monastery, translations 201–2
Robert of Chester 56, 113, 223, 224
Robert of Lorraine 224
Roger I, Grand Count of Sicily 225–6
Roger II, Grand Count and King of Sicily 203, 226
Round City, Baghdad 12, 28–32
Royan Institute, Tehran 249–50
Saadia Gaon 132
al-Sādiq, Imam Ja’far 53–4, 58
Salam, Abdus 244–5
Salmān the Persian 22
Samarkand 238
papermaking 43
Samarra 193
al-Samaw’al, on algebra 108–9
Sanad ibn Ali al-Yahūdi 81–2, 86
circumference of earth 87
saphaea astrolabe 198
Sasanid Empire 18–19, 24
Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology 248
scholarship, al-Ma’mūn 16, 67–8, 78, 80, 230
science, Arabic xxv–xxix
science, modern Islam 241–51
fear 246
Qur’an 246
relative citation index 244
religious conservatism 244–6
universities 247
scientific method xxviii, 169–71, 231
Seleucus, heliocentrism 208
SESAME research centre , Jordan 248–9
Severus Sebokht 100
sexagesimal system 95–6, 99, 102
sextant, mural (Fakhri) 215
Shammāsiyya observatory 82–4
shay 119, 120
Shi’ism 14, 254n10
Ali ibn abi Tālib 24
Isma’īli see Hashashīn
Jābir ibn Hayyān 54
shukūk 168, 211–12
Sicily, under Christian control 225–6
al-Sijzi 183, 212
Sinān ibn Thābit 145
Sind ibn Ali 135
Sindhind 41–2
sine, etymology 224
sine rule 215, 225
smallpox, as cause of blindness 148–9
soap-making 62–3
Socrates 129
Spain, Islamic 189–203
square roots 96
Stevin, Simon, decimal notation 109
Sunnism 14, 254n10
superstition
al-Kindi 134
in work of Jābir ibn Hayyān 53, 55
surgery, al-Zahrāwi 197–8
Sylvester II, Pope see Gerbert d’Aurillac
al-Tabari (historian), Annals of the Prophets and Kings 28
al-Tabari, Sahl Rabbān, translation of Almagest 44–5
Tāhir, General 11–12, 14
Taifa kings 194–5
taklīf 127
tally sticks 93–4
Tariq ibn Ziyad 189
Thābit ibn Qurra 46–7, 48
timekeepers, of mosques 216–17
Toledan Tables 199, 202
Toledo, translation movement 201–3, 223
Tours, battle of 26
translation movement
Baghdad 35–48, 72
Toledo 201–3, 223
transmutation 53, 55–6
trigonometry 163, 186, 225
al-Kāshi 238–9
al-Tūsi 215
etymology 224
tuberculosis 147
Tūsi-couple 216, 218, 218, 219
al-Tūsi, Nasr al-Dīn 42, 48, 213–16, 218
astronomy 215–16; transmission to Europe 219
Memoir on Astronomy 216, 218
The Transversal Figure 215
trigonometry 215
twilight 164–5
Ukhaidhir, Palace of 7
Ulugh Beg 238
Umar ibn al-Khattāb 23
Umayyad Empire 24–7
Andalusia 189–94
universe, creation 131–2, 133
al-Uqlīdisi, Abū al-Hassan
decimal fractions 107–9; The Book of Chapters on Hindu Arithmetic 107, 108
Uthmān, caliph 24
vigesimal system 94, 104–5
Walcher of Malvern 224–5
Wallis, John, symbolic algebra 121–2
waqf 144
Witelo 159, 162
wudhū’ 142
Yahya ibn abi Mansūr 82–3, 86
Yathrib 20, 22
al-Zahrā see Medinat al-Zahrā
al-Zahrāwi, Abū al-Qāsim (Abulcasis) 197–8
Kitab al-Tasrīf 197; translation 202
al-Zarqāli (Arzachel) 198–9
zero
concept of and symbol for 103–6
etymology 106
Zhou Bi Suan Jing, The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven 97
zīj (tables) 83, 84, 199, 215, 238, 259n6
Ziryāb 191
Zoroaster, The Book of Nativities 41
Zoroastrianism 40–41
Zubayda, mother of al-Amīn 6, 10, 13
Pathfinders Page 37
